​The global wind turbine operations and maintenance (O&M) market has been foreseen to be pampered by a growth bolstered by the surging uptake of wind facilities by electric utility companies to gain full advantage of federal production tax credit. Appalachian Power has planned to acquire the Hardin Wind Facility and Beech Ridge II Wind Facility in Hardin and Greenbrier Counties respectively. The utility has said it could benefit from the acquisition of these wind farms while enjoying a reduced dependability on outside energy purchases and profiting from tax credits.

With increasing investment in wind farms, the need for operating and maintaining wind turbines is also expected to rise in the coming years. According to a latest report penned by Transparency Market Research (TMR), the global wind turbine O&M market could earn a valuation of US$20.6 bn by the end of 2023 at an 8.8% CAGR during the forecast period 2015–2023.

The demand in the world wind turbine O&M market is prophesied to be sustained by the mounting count of incidences of generator assembly and gearbox failures and wind turbines reaching their expiration age. Another factor deemed significant for the growth in the demand for wind turbine O&M services could be the augmented presence of private investors and financial organizations in the market as owners of wind farms. Even though high logistics cost and absence of skilled workers are projected to impede the growth of wind turbine O&M services in the industry, the market could rise further on the back of tax credits and other government benefits and labor training solutions.

How will Offshore Application Fare against Stronger Onshore Application?

The dominance of the onshore application in the wind turbine O&M market is pretty evident in the recent era of wind farms. Furthermore, experienced analysts envisage the onshore market to continue grabbing a larger share until the next few years. In the past, onshore application had earned a more than 90.0% share in the market. Nevertheless, industry players could be eying the speedy growth of offshore application in the market due to the servicing complexity of offshore wind turbines and their elevating count. Besides this, the snowballing share of offshore turbines in the wind energy assortment is anticipated to boost the growth of offshore application.

Seconded by Asia Pacific, the Rest of the World market for wind turbine O&M could attain a faster growth. However, the larger share of Europe achieved in the recent past cannot be ignored. Among the important players in the worldwide wind turbine O&M market, Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co. Ltd., Nordex SE, GE Wind Energy, Gamesa Corporación Tecnológica, and Enercon GmbH are forecasted to take a leading position.